April Fool's Day

April Fools’ day or All Fools’ day is a day celebrated in various countries on April the 1st. Some of these countries are: Great Britain, Germany, United States, France, New Zealand,…
Nowadays this day is not considered a bank holiday, it is more a cultural tradition than a religious celebration.
The origin of this celebration is uncertain, there are some theories about it, the most important is the adoption of the new Gregorian calendar in 1564 A.C, by the Edict of Roussillon. Till then, citizens of Europe were using two different systems (Julian and Christian). This situation was very confusing, some countries celebrated New Year’s Day on January 1st and others on March 25th.
The celebration can last till 12 pm or 12 am, depending on the country. In some countries like New Zealand, the U.K., Australia,… jokes last till noon, if someone plays a trick after that time he will be called an April fool. This is the reason why only morning editions of newspapers in England have a fake front page. In some other countries like France, Italy, Ireland,… jokes last all day.
In Spain is a little bit different. Aprils’ Fool Day is called by the Spaniards “El día de los Santos Inocentes” (The Day of the Innocents) and it is celebrated on December 28th.
Jokes are done everywhere, on TV shows, newspapers, radio, internet,… Some examples:
“The Sun” announced the development of a new edible edition of the newspaper, it would have a specific area that could be tasted.
In the 50s a dutch radio program assured that the Pisa tower had fallen.
In 2003, several Korean and Chinese websites informed about the death of Bill Gates, cofounder of Microsoft. Because of that news, Microsoft’s stocks fell 1.5 points down.
In 1980 the BBC channel announced that the government was studying a proposal of converting the Big Ben clock into a new fashion digital one.

Activities to do in class:

Aims:

Learning about April Fools' Day

Knowing the history of this celebration

Knowing the different traditions of a foreign culture.

Contents:

April Fools' Day

English humour

History of the celebration

1) In the morning before all the children come to class, the teacher could glue some coins to the floor. When the children come in, we can expect anything. After a while, we can explain to them, especially to those who tried harder, that it was a joke because that day is April Fools' Day. Then we can teach them a little more about that day.

2) We can put a few drops of red food colouring into a milk carton. Then we ask the children to drink some milk. We will observe their reaction and we will try to explain what could happen. We are sure they have a lot of theories, surely some great ones. Then, we tell them the trick and the reason why we put it (their April Fools' Day).

3) After 1) and 2), we can recommend the students to practise these jokes at home:

- Change the salt with the sugar if someone is going to use the sugar. To hide and to observe the results… Then they can explain to their families about April Fools' Day.

- To set the alarm clocks 2 hours before the time your brother or sister normally gets up, you will laugh, thought he or she won’t. Then you can explain to him or her about April Fools' Day.

DU From here to there - Transport Systems

From here to there

Aims:

- Stimulating English language in the school.

- Knowing different means of transport and some differences between them.

- Knowing when and why to use them.

- Getting an idea of distances.

- Introducing children to another concepts: size, environment, speed.

Methodology:

First, we will show different transport systems to the children, teach them that we can go from here on foot to there by plane. Showing a few of their characteristics, so they can understand when one of them is the best choice. Introducing a little mathematics and physics: concepts of size, speed and environment.

Didactic Unit From here to there

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Then we will watch a video where they can discover a few more transport systems.

Activities:

Children have to work in group to choose which is the best means of transport to go from A point to B point.

Activity 1

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Activity 2:

Children have to make puzzles and once finished, they have to write the name of the transport system. Also, they need to remind its size and environment used. Example:

Materials:

Powerpoint presentation.

A video from Youtube.

Puzzles selfmade by the children.

Places and resources:

From the playground children can know some of the characteristics of the travelling systems such as speed and size of people, cars and planes for example.

Timing: 45 minutes.

Reinforcement: 2 more classes of 45 minutes.

A Fairy Tale

Hi,

This is my particular view of: "Goldilocks ant the three bears"

JFGoldilocks

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Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Once upon a time, there was a little girl in a little town. The name of the girl was Alma, but everybody called her Goldilocks ("Can you imagine why?").
One Summer afternoon, Goldilocks was playing in the fields, running from one side to the other, picking up flowers. From the place she was, she stared at a house in the forest. As she was hungry and thirsty, she thought that maybe she could ask for some water. So she did. She went to the house and knocked on the door. No one was inside. The door suddenly opened and she went into the dining room. - Hello!! Is there anyone here? asked Goldilocks, but there was no answer.- Heeeellooooo!!!! repeated again.- It seems that there is no one in here.- What am I going to do? I am so thirsty...- When she was leaving the house a sweet smell came. She turned around and saw three cups with honey. There was a big, a medium and a small one. -Uffhh! it is very hot! screamed the girl after touching the big cup. AAhhggh!!! this is too hot too, said after touching the medium one. Oh! this is perfect, Glup, Glup, Glup, and the girl drank all the milk. This is very tasty. I think I am going to sit. Goldilocks found three chairs, a big, a medium and a small one. She sat on the big one but it was too tall for her, the medium was too wide and the small one, CRUUCCC, OH What happened? I've broken the chair, I am too heavy for it. AAAAhhh I am so tired, I think I am going to have a little rest. She went to the bedroom and found three beds. A big one, a medium one and a small one. The mattress of the big was too soft for her, the medium too hard and the small one, well the small was perfect. So perfect that she fell asleep.
Meanwhile the owners of the house arrived. They were a Bear family, the big Pa, the medium Ma and their little son. As soon as they arrived, they went straight away to have dinner. Ehh! Someone has tasted my milk, said Pa, mine too, said Ma and...Someone drank all my milk! said the son. This is very strange- Let's sit and think about who could be, said Pa. When they found the chairs they noticed that someone had tried them. Who sat on my chair? Pa asked, who sat on mine? asked Ma and...Who broke my chair? cried the little son. Stop! I smell something, follow me family. They went to the bedroom and asked again, Who has been lying on my bed? Who has been lying in mine? Who are you? asked the son. Goldilocks opened her eyes, and when she saw the three angry bears, she jumped off the bed and ran and ran until she reached her home. The three bears didn't have time to ask.
And remember children: privacy has to be respected by everyone. And only take or use the things that you need.


Enjoy it!

The Twits

Hi,

Cristina and I let you know how this particular couple ends.

Enjoy it!





Written version:

One week after Ms Twit came ballooning down, she was still plotting how to take revenge on him. Her husband had gone too far. She was horribly angry and very furious. She realized that her husband wanted to lose sight of her. But Ms Twit was very smart.

Just like every morning, she went to the garden and talked to the monkeys. From now on, there is no more upside down practice she told them, you are going to start digging, digging for a grave.

On Tuesdays Mr. Twit used to go out of the house to smear the Big Dead Tree with his special glue to hunt the poor birds. On Wednesdays he used to pick them up from the tree. That was the day Ms Twit chose to start her plan. As she had perfectly calculated, it took five days to the monkeys to dig a huge deep hole in the earth. It was located just two meters far from the Big Dead Tree, but on its way. Once the monkeys had finished their job, the little old witch spread some branches on the floor. They made a perfect trap.

During those days, Mr. Twit apologized to his wife for his behavior and she accepted it as if nothing had happened. That reaction put him on red alert. What the hell was she thinking about? I must prepare myself, something very bad is coming. That Tuesday, Mr. Twit had a bad feeling. Today is the day, he thought.

Before he went to the tree, he stood in the pond and caught several frogs. He knew they were Ms Twit strongest fear. Then he went back to the house, while Ms Twit was with the monkeys, he set all the frogs free inside the house. He closed the door, took the ladder and went straight to the Big Dead Tree. That was the moment Ms Twit had been waiting for. The time passed very slowly. Suddenly the horrible man disappeared in front of her. A few tears started running down on her face, then a lot more. She couldn't stop crying with happiness. She remembered that she had a camera, where could it be? She thought. Inside the house. She went to get it and as soon as she opened the door, thousands of frogs were jumping against her body (in fact they were just trying to escape from that dry place). That was too much for her, she was terrified and her heart stopped pumping for a few seconds. She totally freaked out, she ran and ran and felt into the hole.

Incredible, that was the first time in their lives, they had played a trick on each other at the same time. They were very annoyed, because they had drawn. At that point, the Twits had to join forces and get out of there. The wife climbed on her husband's shoulders and reached the surface. Once out of the hole, she threw a rope to Mr. Twit and helped him to get out. From that day, they only played tricks on the rest of the mortals, but not on each other